Understanding Android Manifest File

                                           

                                               Android Manifest file

Every Android application must have a manifest file. Manifest file contains very essential information about the application. Having a proper understanding of manifest is necessary for Android application development.

A manifest file contains following information of Android application

• Package name: The package name serves as a unique identifier for the application.
• Activities : All activities are declared in manifest file.
• Services : All the services used in you application must be declared in activities.
• BroadcastReceivers : If your application has broadcast receiver, it must be declared in the manifest file.
• Permissions : Lists the permissions required for your application.
• API Level : It declares the minimum, maximum and target API level of the Android API that the application requires.
• Application version : specifies the application version.
• Features used in application : it specifies which android feature the application require to run properly.
• Supported screen size : Android devices comes in many shapes and size. You need to specify which screen types your application supports.

Let us have a sample manifest file and discuss each element in detail.

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    package="com.android.calculator"

    android:versionCode="1"

    android:versionName="1.1" >

    <uses-sdk

        android:minSdkVersion="8"

        android:maxSdkVersion="16"

        android:targetSdkVersion="15" />

   

    <!--  list of permissions  -->

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_MMS" />

   

    <!--  Screen types supported  -->

    <supports-screens

        android:smallScreens="true"

        android:normalScreens="true"

        android:largeScreens="false"/>

   

    <!--  Features needed -->

    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth" />

    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />

    <application

        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"

        android:label="@string/app_name"

        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

        <activity

            android:name=".MainActivity"

            android:label="@string/title_activity_main" >

            <intent-filter>

                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

            </intent-filter>

        </activity>

       

         <receiver android:name=".SmsReceiver">

            <intent-filter>

                <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED" />

            </intent-filter>

        </receiver>

        <service  android:name="VibrateService"/>

       

    </application>

</manifest>

Let us discuss each attribute

1:   package="com.android.calculator"

package name of the application is "com.android.calculator".

2: android:versionName="1.1"

version of application is 1.1

3: <uses-sdk

        android:minSdkVersion="8"

        android:maxSdkVersion="16"

        android:targetSdkVersion="15" />

minSdkVersion attribute: specifies the lowest API level that the application supports, here it is 8.

maxSdkVersion attribute: specifies the maximum/highst API level that the application supports, here it is 16.

targetSdkVersion attribute: specifies the optimun API level that the application supports, here it is 15.

4: <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_MMS" />

The application has requested four permissons

Permission to read contacts.

Permission to access internet.

Permission to vibrate the device.

Permission to receive the SMS.

Note: If you not declare the required permission in the manifest and use the feature in your application you will get “SecurityException”. List of all imporatnt permissions is given in the appendix.

5:    <supports-screens

        android:smallScreens="true"

        android:normalScreens="true"

        android:largeScreens="false"/>

application supports devices with small and normal screens but not support devices with large screens.

6: <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth" />

   <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />

Application uses camera and Bluetooth hardware of the device.

7: the     <application> tag

In the application tag all activities, services and broadcast receivers are declared.

 

New Advance Topics:                   Android LiveWallpaer Tutorial
Android ImageSwitcher                    Android TextSwitcher                                Android ViewFlipper
Android Gesture Detector               Handling/Detecting Swipe Events                Gradient Drawable
Detecting Missed Calls                    Hide Title Bar                                           GridView Animation
Android AlarmManager                 Android BootReceiver                       Vibrate Phone In a Desirable Pattern    
Developing for Different Screen Sizes           Showing Toast for Longer Time       Publishing your App
How to publish Android App on Google Play
Android TextWatcher                               Android ExpandableListView

 Beginning With Android
      Android : Introduction(What is Android)                                                              Configuring Eclipse for Android Development
     Creating Your First Android Project                                           Understanding Android Manifest File of your android app

 Advance Android Topics                                                              Customizing Android Views

      Customizing Toast In Android                                                        Customizing Radio Buttons

      Showing Toast for Longer Time                                                      Customizing Checkboxes In Android

      Customizing the Display Time of Toast                                           Customizing ProgressBar

      Using TimePickerDialog and DatePickerDialog In android                 Customizing Toast In Android

      Animating A Button In Android

      Populating ListView With DataBase                                           Android Animation

      Increasin Size of Checkboxes                                                   Using Android ImageSwitcher  

      Android ProgressBar                                                                 Using Android TextSwitcher

      Designing For Different Screen Sizes                                            GridView Animation

      Handling Keyboard Events                                                        Animating A Button In Android

Alarm Manager     
Android AlarmManger
Scheduling Task Using AlarmManger

Working With Layouts                                                                Working With Views

Understanding Layouts in Android                                                   Using Buttons and EditText in Android
Working with Linear Layout (With Example)                                     Using CheckBoxes in Android
Nested Linear Layout (With Example)                                              Using AutoCompleteTextView in Android                                                                                          Grid View
Relative Layout In Android                                                               ListView
Table Layout                                                                                   Android ProgressBar
Frame Layout(With Example)                                                          Customizing ProgressBar
Absolute Layout                                                                             Customizing Radio Buttons
Grid Layout                                                                                    Customizing Checkboxes In Android

Android Advance Views
Android Spinner                                                                           Android GalleryView
Android TabWidget                                                                      Android ExpandableListView

Android Components                                                                 Dialogs In Android

Activity In Android                                                                    Working With Alert Dialog
Activity Life Cycle                                                                    Adding Radio Buttons In Dialog
Starting Activity For Result                                                       Adding Check Boxes In Dialog
Sending Data from One Activity to Other in Android                    Creating Customized Dialogs in Android
Returning Result from Activity                                                   Creating Dialog To Collect User Input
Android : Service                                                                     DatePicker and TimePickerDialog
BroadcastReceiver                                                                   Using TimePickerDialog and DatePickerDialog In android

Menus In Android                                                                ListView:
Creating Option Menu                                                               Populating ListView With DataBase
Creating Context Menu In Android                                              Populating ListView with ArrayList
                                                                                               ListView with Custom Adapter

Toast                                                                                      Working With SMS
Customizing Toast In Android                                                       How to Send SMS in Android
Customizing the Display Time of Toast                                        How To Receive SMS
Customizing Toast At Runtime                                                  Accessing Inbox In Android
Adding Image in Toast
Showing Toast for Longer Time


TelephonyManager                                                            Storage: Storing Data In Android
Using Telephony Manager In Android                                          SharedPreferences In Android
                                                                                              Reading and Writing files to Internal Stoarage

Working With Incoming Calls                                       DataBase :  Introduction of SQLiteDataBase
How To Handle Incoming Calls in Android                                Working With Database in Android
How to Forward an Incoming Call In Android                            Creating Table In Android
CALL States In Android                                                          Inserting, Deleting and Updating Records In Table in Android


Miscellaneous
Notifications In Android
How To Vibrate The Android Phone
Sending Email In Android
Opening a webpage In Browser
How to Access PhoneBook In Android
Prompt User Input with an AlertDialog
How to Hide Title Bar In Android
How to show an Activity in Landscape or Portrait Mode only.
How to Set an Image as Wallpaper.

Romantic Messages for Lovers

$*#@%$ ca-app-pub-4111868940087848/3418151202

Romantic Messages for Lovers

Meeting you was the best day of my life.

When you are next to me, or when we are apart, You are always the first in my thoughts and in my heart.

I never ever thought I’d like you this much and I never planned to have you on my mind this often.

I love the way you love me.

Spring drops and the sun outside the window tell me that this spring will be the flowering of our love.

I can’t spend a day without you, can’t you see? I love you so much. You are a part of me and this is forever.

You make me happy in a thousand ways. I love you to the moon and back, and I have no idea what I would do, if I lost you, because I feel like I will lose my entire world.

Nothing is going change my love for you, you are the man, who helped me to find myself in this life.

I want to be your favorite hello and your hardest goodbye.

Your smile takes my breath away. It took my breath away on the day we met, on our wedding day, today, and every day in between.

Thank you for teaching me what marrying your best friend means.

I wish every day you could see yourself the way I see you. Because I see you as absolutely perfect.

When I put my arms around you, I never want to let you go.

My life was black and white until you came in and added color.

Android Spinner Tutotial

Spinner is a widget which provides a quick way to select a value from a set. A spinner presents multiple options/items to the user from which user can select one option.

For ex.  In game application when we want user to select a particular level he/she wants to play, we can use spinner to multiples levels in which can select one level.

Using Spinner

Steps to use spinner in your application

1: Defining the spinner in your .xml/layout file by using “Spinner” tag

<!—Declaring Spinner in xml -->

    <Spinner

        android:id="@+id/spinner"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:prompt="@string/spinner_title"

    />

2: Create an array/arraylist of strings that will be set as the items of spinner.

String spinnerItems[]={"Level 1","Level 2","Level 3","Level 4","Level 5",};

3: Create adapter and set it with spinner

// Create adapter for spinner

ArrayAdapter  dataAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, spinnerItems);

// attaching data adapter to spinner

mySpinnerObject.setAdapter(dataAdapter);

4: Set  clicklistener on Spinner

// set clicklistener on Spinner

 mySpinnerObject.setOnItemSelectedListener(this);

5: override  onItemSelected() method, this method gets called by the System when an item is selected. This method receives the position parameter which signifies the index of the array/arraylist which is selected by the user.

@Override

 public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id)

{

                         

// get the selected Spinner's Item

            String itemSelected = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();

}

Let put all this together and develop an android application to learn how to use spinner.

Demo Application: “Working with Spinner”

What we will do: We will present a list of levels “Level 1,Level 2,Level 3,Level 4,Level 5" to the user and show the level selected by the user using Toast.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    android:orientation="vertical"

    android:padding="10dip"

    android:layout_width="fill_parent"

    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TextView

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:text="Select the Level"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:textColor="#0000FF"

        android:textSize="20dp"

        android:textStyle="bold"

    />

    <!-- Spinner Element -->

    <Spinner

        android:id="@+id/spinner"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

    />

  </LinearLayout>

SpinnerMainActivity.java

public class SpinnerMainActivity extends Activity implements OnItemSelectedListener

{

     Spinner mySpinner;

      /* create array of string of levels

     * to be set as Spinner Item

     */

    String spinnerItems[]={"Level 1","Level 2","Level 3","Level 4","Level 5",};

   

     @Override

     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)

     {

          super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

          setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

         

          // get the Spinner reference

               mySpinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);

       

               // set clicklistener on Spinner

               mySpinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(this);

       

              // Create adapter for spinner

          ArrayAdapter  dataAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, spinnerItems);

          // Drop down layout style - list view with radio button

                    dataAdapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);

          // attaching data adapter to spinner

          mySpinner.setAdapter(dataAdapter);

     }

     /* onItemSelected() method gets called by the System

      * when an item is selected

      * This method receives the position parameter

      * which signifies the index of the array

      * which is selected

      */

     @Override

        public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id)

        {

           

              // get the selected Spinner's Item

              String itemSelected = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();

              // Showing selected spinner item

              Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),  itemSelected+"  Selected", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

          }

      

      

       @Override

          public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView view)

          {

              // TODO Auto-generated method stub

          }

}

 

New Advance Topics:                   Android LiveWallpaer Tutorial
Android ImageSwitcher                    Android TextSwitcher                                Android ViewFlipper
Android Gesture Detector               Handling/Detecting Swipe Events                Gradient Drawable
Detecting Missed Calls                    Hide Title Bar                                           GridView Animation
Android AlarmManager                 Android BootReceiver                       Vibrate Phone In a Desirable Pattern    
Developing for Different Screen Sizes           Showing Toast for Longer Time       Publishing your App
How to publish Android App on Google Play
Android TextWatcher                               Android ExpandableListView

 Beginning With Android
      Android : Introduction(What is Android)                                                              Configuring Eclipse for Android Development
     Creating Your First Android Project                                           Understanding Android Manifest File of your android app

 Advance Android Topics                                                              Customizing Android Views

      Customizing Toast In Android                                                        Customizing Radio Buttons

      Showing Toast for Longer Time                                                      Customizing Checkboxes In Android

      Customizing the Display Time of Toast                                           Customizing ProgressBar

      Using TimePickerDialog and DatePickerDialog In android                 Customizing Toast In Android

      Animating A Button In Android

      Populating ListView With DataBase                                           Android Animation

      Increasin Size of Checkboxes                                                   Using Android ImageSwitcher  

      Android ProgressBar                                                                 Using Android TextSwitcher

      Designing For Different Screen Sizes                                            GridView Animation

      Handling Keyboard Events                                                        Animating A Button In Android

Alarm Manager     
Android AlarmManger
Scheduling Task Using AlarmManger

Working With Layouts                                                                Working With Views

Understanding Layouts in Android                                                   Using Buttons and EditText in Android
Working with Linear Layout (With Example)                                     Using CheckBoxes in Android
Nested Linear Layout (With Example)                                              Using AutoCompleteTextView in Android                                                                                          Grid View
Relative Layout In Android                                                               ListView
Table Layout                                                                                   Android ProgressBar
Frame Layout(With Example)                                                          Customizing ProgressBar
Absolute Layout                                                                             Customizing Radio Buttons
Grid Layout                                                                                    Customizing Checkboxes In Android

Android Advance Views
Android Spinner                                                                           Android GalleryView
Android TabWidget                                                                      Android ExpandableListView

Android Components                                                                 Dialogs In Android

Activity In Android                                                                    Working With Alert Dialog
Activity Life Cycle                                                                    Adding Radio Buttons In Dialog
Starting Activity For Result                                                       Adding Check Boxes In Dialog
Sending Data from One Activity to Other in Android                    Creating Customized Dialogs in Android
Returning Result from Activity                                                   Creating Dialog To Collect User Input
Android : Service                                                                     DatePicker and TimePickerDialog
BroadcastReceiver                                                                   Using TimePickerDialog and DatePickerDialog In android

Menus In Android                                                                ListView:
Creating Option Menu                                                               Populating ListView With DataBase
Creating Context Menu In Android                                              Populating ListView with ArrayList
                                                                                               ListView with Custom Adapter

Toast                                                                                      Working With SMS
Customizing Toast In Android                                                       How to Send SMS in Android
Customizing the Display Time of Toast                                        How To Receive SMS
Customizing Toast At Runtime                                                  Accessing Inbox In Android
Adding Image in Toast
Showing Toast for Longer Time


TelephonyManager                                                            Storage: Storing Data In Android
Using Telephony Manager In Android                                          SharedPreferences In Android
                                                                                              Reading and Writing files to Internal Stoarage

Working With Incoming Calls                                       DataBase :  Introduction of SQLiteDataBase
How To Handle Incoming Calls in Android                                Working With Database in Android
How to Forward an Incoming Call In Android                            Creating Table In Android
CALL States In Android                                                          Inserting, Deleting and Updating Records In Table in Android


Miscellaneous
Notifications In Android
How To Vibrate The Android Phone
Sending Email In Android
Opening a webpage In Browser
How to Access PhoneBook In Android
Prompt User Input with an AlertDialog
How to Hide Title Bar In Android
How to show an Activity in Landscape or Portrait Mode only.
How to Set an Image as Wallpaper.